Artist's Statement

Over the course of this semester I have focused on the art of mask making by exploring the form of the mask, the function and, most recently the emotional content behind masks as a literal and non-literal form. My research, writing, sketching, and mask making tactics have been both enjoyable and therapeutic as I unveil the secrets that hide behind my own “mask.”

At the beginning, I was interested in the details, patterns, and shapes of the Venetian style of mask making. Then I became interested in the function that masks serve in other cultures, particularly the African culture. The book, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, especially inspired me. The visual representation of Gods in masks led me to think about my own idea of “God,” and even what that means to me.

As I continued my work with the project and dealt with some of my own emotional stress, I started to think about masks in a less literal sense, and explored the idea of masks within faces, and the idea of what a mask literally does. A mask is literally a form that covers some portion of the face, but it does not cover the eyes. I then thought about a face that is not wearing a mask, particularly my own face and thought about how you do not need a literal mask to hide your emotions from the world. But these expressions cannot veil the “window to the soul.” So then I thought about the way masks avoid the eyes, and are they avoiding the eyes? Or are they framing the eyes? What about the eyes are unapproachable to the concept of masks? As a disguise, what are they hiding? What do we want to hide from the world? And are we successful at hiding? Do the masks help or hinder us in our struggle? These questions have inspired my writing and my work as an artist, and I feel as though I am only on the surface of this concept.

Kristen Kieffer

On Thursday afternoon, I saw Kristen Kieffer, a visiting artist in the ceramics department. She was an amazing artist who makes elegant and detailed works of art using mostly porcelain. She is a potter, so her work is functional, but it has so much detail and care put into every step, so a mug or flower box done by her is a completely unique piece. It was amazing to watch how fluidly she was able to throw on the wheel, and it was inspiring to watch her process and find out where her inspiration comes from.There are a number of alterations that she demonstrated for us in the studio that she uses on her pieces such as: darting, stamping, and slip trailing. Darting is a term used mostly in a fashion world, but clothing is one of her inspirations. She cuts away and then seams the edges back together to create a new shape in the form just like the process of making a corset. Stamping on her pieces gives them a new texture in beautiful patterns. She showed us both how she makes her own stamps, and how when she does the stamping into a mug it can change the profile of the inside and the outside. Slip trailing is how she gives a raised texture to the piece by squeezing think slip (a mixture of clay and water) onto the surface of the piece. All of her work was beautiful and exceptionally detailed. It was also great to listen to her talk about her work and her sources of inspiration and to see her sketchbook.The images were taken from http://kiefferceramics.com/ where you can read more about the artist and even purchase pieces!

Galeries in Chelsea

On Tuesday, November 11th, my Concepts and Processes class went to New York City to visit some galleries in Chelsea. It was a really fun trip, we got to see a lot of artwork. My favorite experience of the trip was in the Kent Gallery, an exhibit of Charles Gaines titled Manifestos. This work was created using music, four manifestos: the Black Panther Manifesto, the Perspective for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life Manifesto, the Socialist Congress Manifesto and the Zapatista Manifesto, were written into musical format based on the letters within the words that were written. All the letters A-G were played as their musical equivalents, and the letter H was used for B-flat, as this was the code used in the early Baroque period. All other letters, punctuation, and spaces were played as rests. The music that was produced from this system was a bit random, but it sounded so beautiful, soothing, and relaxing. The most interesting part of that for me is that as speeches, these manifestos would have been delivered with force and passion, yet the rendering played by the piano quintet (one piano, two violins, a viola, and a cello), was just the opposite.

I also enjoyed most of the other exhibits we saw, some of the work I did not like so much, but I appreciate the fact that I got the chance to see it anyways. But among the work I did enjoy, these are the names of my favorite artists from the trip: Beth Campbell, Ben Durham, and Storm Tharp at the Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery; Petah Coyne at the Galerie LeLong; Ernesto Neto at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery; David Barnett at the Denise Bibro Gallery; and Christa Parravani at the Sara Tecchia Roma Gallery. There were many others, but these were my favorites which I found tobe the most inspiring to me as an artist.

Some of the information paraphrased about the work of Charles Gaines, as well as the image example of his work, was taken from the following website: http://www.kentgallery.com/exhibitions/current.html

UMass Amherst Visit

*This post was written last week, but I have not been able to get it up because the Internet was down*

This weekend I went to visit my cousin at UMass Amherst, and I had a really good time. UMass is famous for their Marching Band, and I got to see them perform on Saturday afternoon, and they were spectacular! Between the band, the color guard, and the twirlers, there are almost 400 students who all perform in unison, which creates a moving visual art piece on the football field. They sing and dance as well as marching and playing music, and they are so well coordinated. The band was truly a work of art, I had a great time listening to and watching them perform.

I did not do much work on my mask this weekend because I was away, but I am happy with the state it is in. I changed my mind a little bit for what I want it to help me with. I decided I want it to act as a connection between my father and me. He passed away from a heart attack when I was twelve. I decided that it does not literally have to cure me of an illness like the original purpose of the masks I researched. This meaning is also personal and purposeful to me, and it seems more appropriate based on the personal background the idea came from and it is also more connected to my idea of God. I think this form of the mask is like a sketch of what I would want it to be like in another material, like a wood carved mask.

My God Mask Developement

After our meeting on Monday, I've decided I should try subtractive sculpting, but I am going to use clay, so that if I make a mistake, it will not be very costly and I can get some extra practice if necessary. I went to the clay studio on Wednesday, but I didn't have enough clay for the full size mask, so I just worked with a small amount. I realized that I would have to buy more clay, but I have to wait until Monday, because it has to be done in the morning, and I have mostly morning classes. At first I was upset that I would have to wait to get more clay, but then I remembered that in the mask book I have been using as a reference said that a miniature mask would be worn concealed beneath the clothing of the person who had the problem. I have decided that I will keep working with the small amount because I have it, and then it will be one more aspect of my complete project. I still want to work on a larger scale, I will just have to wait a little bit longer to start it.

As for the "cure" my God mask is going to provide for me, I have been thinking about it a lot, and I have come up with a simple idea. Just as with my first mask, my inspiration came from my boyfriend. He lives in Falmouth, MA, and I don't get to see him very much. I miss him a lot, so the mask I make is going to be a cure for my distance from him, to help me not miss him so much when I can't be with him and remind me that we still love each other even when we have to be separated. I don't really need a mask or an item to carry around for me to know this, but it is the power that any God that I believe in would possess if I had to choose one. I will call it the cure for homesickness by binding loved ones together throughout times of separation or long distance.

The Iron Pour

This Friday night I went to the Iron Pour. It was a really fun event in which the metal students show off their skills for the whole school. When I got there, the main event had not yet started, but there were other sources of entertainment. There were fire dancers, food, face painting, and a band was playing music. There were a lot of people there, some of them were even in costume. Then there was a large fenced off area where some sculptures were set up. The sculptures were made of wood, braided hay, and carved pumpkins. The metal students were fueling a fire in a bin, and they kept pouring pieces of iron in to heat them up and melt them.

When the main event of the pouring of the iron began, everyone flocked to the center area. It was actually very beautiful to see the sparks fly from the hot molten iron landing on the sculptures. The sparks were glittery and looked like the sparklers you play with during the fourth of July. Some of the sculptures caught on fire with contact, and some just looked to be glowing red, but did not actually burst in flame. Some of the things were also allowed to burn, and others were put out or cooled down with a hose of water, I'm sure for safety reasons. One girl was roasting marshmallows for people for people in the audience. It was really fun to see all of the sculptures change form through the flame, and the iron pieces, once cool, took on some very organic shapes and were beautiful to see.

Visit to the ICA

Ok, so I just watched the Red Sox lose game 7 to the Tampa Bay Rays; they will not be the World Series Champions this year, and I am totally devastated! But, on an art note, I can talk about my trip to the ICA today. This afternoon, I went down to the ICA to see the Tara Donovan exhibit, and it was absolutely mind-blowing! I have never seen anything like the works she has on display, and I will most definitely never be able to look at normal objects, like tape, toothpicks, straws, or Styrofoam cups, the same ever again. The way she was able to manipulate these ordinary materials to make such beautifully extraordinary work with them, I just fell in love with every piece I saw.

Not only is her work flowing, organic, beautiful, and unique, but it also seems to defy the laws of physics. My favorite piece in the show was titled Haze, 2005, and was made purely out of translucent plastic drinking straws. What surprised me the most as I read about it was that the only thing holing the entire volume of straws up were the corners of the walls. The straws were placed across an entire wall, but it is only their pressure against each other that allow the rest of it to hold up! The most mesmerizing part of this wall sculpture was the way the light and shadows reacted within the hollow tubes of the straws as you walk past it. It reveals a sort of reflection in this way that makes you look closer to discover the simple elements of the material and the composition of the whole.

There were plenty of other sculptures that I seemed unable to take my eyes off of, and I strongly recommend this exhibit to everyone, especially Mass Art students who can view it for free at the ICA.

My images were taken from Google images.

My God Mask

My senior year in high school, we read the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The book was about the main character, Okonkwo, and his life and his part in his village in Nigeria. It was a very interesting story and I learned a lot about that culture from the perspective of Okonkwo. During at least one point in the story, they have a ritual in which they call upon the Gods they believe in for advice. I can't quite remember the specifics or the number of Gods, but it was somewhere around 7-10, and they were embodied in that number of men from the village. The men would wear masks and dance around for the other people in the village and the people knew that it would be only the men, but they would treat them as if they were the actual incarnations of the Gods. Their bodies were just a sort of vessel so that the Gods could get down to Earth and speak to the people.

I have not done much re-search on the aesthetics of the masks that would have been used, but I like the idea of becoming a God just by adorning a mask, so I think I would like to make a large clay mask that represents a God that I would like to believe in for my second project and it will be based on the ideas from Chinua Achebe's book. I am not a religious person, I do not go to church or worship any God, so I want my God to be a God of Nature. Nature and the environment I live in are important to me, so I will make a God for that so that it is personal to me. I remember when I was a small child, my Dad asked me one night while tucking me into bed, "What do you think God looks like?" My favorite movie of the time was The Little Mermaid, so my response was, "I think He must look like King Triton." I thought of what an all powerful man who created the world would look like, and King Triton was the most powerful man under the sea in that movie, and really all of the movies I had ever seen, and he had magical powers, so it was natural for me to think that is what God would be like also. I want to make my mask just a little bit larger than the size of a normal mask, and I want to make it out of clay. I will do some more research on non-western masks over the next week and post that later.


I got the image of King Triton from Google images.

The Speaker Box Project

This Thursday I went to the Speaker Box Project because I had been meaning to get there for a while now. I got there at about 8pm and the band that was playing was called Idiolect, and they are described as a noise-groove jazz group. It was interesting because their sound was unlike anything I've ever listened to before. It was an unusual style because it sounded like organized noise, or random music, that was somehow pleasing to hear and kind of jazzy. It is really hard to describe the sound, so here is a link to their myspace page where you can listen to a selection of their music:

http://www.myspace.com/idiolectsound

It sounded really different in the speaker box because the acoustics were accentuated and everything echoed more in the large gallery. It was also very loud! I could not stay in there for long because my ears are sensitive to loud noises. I explored the constructions upstairs which were very weird and felt random, but that kind of went along with the music I was hearing. There were a lot of signs that were upside down or even broken. There was also a teddy bear in one and a lot of orange traffic cones. I did not really understand the concept of the piece, but I don't know if that was important. I would like to go back again when there is another band to see how my experience changes. I also wonder what it would be like in silence where I could listen to my own sounds or those that are made by other people there viewing it at the same time. I also wonder if it is so loud on the inside of the speaker as it is in the rest of the room.

I got this image off of the MassArt website.

My Mask

I started to make my mask this week after deciding on a topic/theme. It took a while to come up with an idea, but I became inspired by the idea of making a flower into a mask when I made "flowers" my theme for an assignment in one of my other classes. For my mask, I decided that the first flower I would make would be a rose because I have a personal love for that flower because of my boyfriend. Every year for Valentine's Day he gives me a rose in some form. The first year, he gave me a dozen red roses, the next year he gave me half a dozen roses made out of chocolate, last year he gave me a glass rose. He has also given me a rose dipped in wax from our county fair, a locket with a rose engraving on it, and countless bouquets of roses through our three years together. I had never had a favorite flower, but now my favorite flower is the rose because he has made it so special for me.

I had to decide what color to make the first mask which was difficult. I thought a black rose could be interesting since Halloween is coming up. I also thought that blue would be nice because it is my best friend's favorite flower, but neither black nor blue roses naturally occur in nature. That did not bother me, but I felt that, after doing some research about the colors' meanings, it did not fit with my source of inspiration. Black meaning "death, farewell," and blue meaning "the unattainable, the impossible." I liked the meanings for red and white roses, they are listed below, so I just had to decide which one I would do. At this point, it did not really matter which color I chose, so I went to Blick to buy materials and I made my decision based on my aesthetic reaction to the choices before me. I ended up choosing red because I liked the paper and the combination of it with the green stem. I also thought that if I were to make an entire costume to go with it, the white would look too bridal. If I decide I have the time to make another mask and I want to make a rose, instead of any other thing, then maybe I will do a white rose mask.

Red: Love, Beauty, Courage and Respect, Romantic Love, Congratulations, "I Love You", "Job Well Done", Sincere Love, Respect, Courage & Passion

Red (Dark):Unconscious beauty

Red (Single): "I Love You"

White: Purity, Innocence, Silence, Secrecy, Reverence, Humility, Youthfulness, "I am worthy of you", Heavenly

White (Bridal): Happy love

Red and White: Given together, these signify unity

I got the meanings of the roses off of this website:
http://www.rkdn.org/roses/colors.asp

Topic for Fisrt Assignment

Venetian Masks have a long and fascinating history. The Venice Carnival began in the 11th century and was fairly simple. The first masks worn had either a symbolic purpose, like religious or entertainment reasons, or they were made and worn for practical reasons, such as to help protect against disease. The "plague doctor's" mask was designed with a long beak which tradition says was to protect the wearer from the plague. After a couple of centuries, the masks were worn by both nobles and commoners alike to disguise their social classes so they could inter-mingle at the carnival without fear of exposing their social rank. Unfortunately, Napoleon's army brought down the Venetian Republic in 1797 which brought an end also to the Venetian Carnival. The art of mask making in Venice and in the Venetian style, using papier-mâché or leather was brought back into the culture by a group of students from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1978 when they opened Venice's first modern mask shop.

Not only is the history of Venetian masks fascinating, but the form, structure, decoration, creativity, and process of producing the final mask is captivating also. Masks come in all shapes, sizes, colors, materials, and themes. They are worn around the world and make beautiful disguises. The idea of masked balls and masquerades has inspired people all around the world. Even plays that are not performed with masks often include a scene where everyone is dressed up in disguise. Shakespeare sets the stage where Romeo and Juliet meet at a masked ball. There is an exciting musical number in The Phantom of the Opera which is "The Masquerade," not to mention that the Phantom wears a mask because he is insecure about his disfigured face. Halloween is a holiday in our culture dedicated to the act of disguise where masks often play an important role. Even in our daily lives, we see people walking around on the street wearing a masks of makeup (not traditionally considered a mask, but a mask none the less) to accentuate their looks and hide blemishes. I find myself intrigued by the idea of hidden identity; I also get lost in the beauty of so many of the masks I've seen, especially those made in the Venetian style.

I think that I would like to do my first project based on the art of Venetian Masks using the song "Masquerade" form The Phantom of the Opera as my first source of inspiration.

I used information found in the following sites for my research of Venetian mask history:
http://www.lyricsondemand.com/soundtracks/p/thephantomoftheoperalyrics/masqueradelyrics.html
http://www.simplymasquerade.co.uk/maskmaking.html
http://www.carnivalvenicemask.com/index.html
http://www.fondazione.com/Index.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=3&page=24

The images in this blog were taken, for educational purposes, from the following websites:
http://www.maskitalia.com/michela.htm
http://www.venicemaskshop.com/

Inspiration Paper due 9/15

Inspiration-
What is inspiration? I suppose inspiration feels, looks, or even smells different to everybody, but everybody experiences inspiration in some way or another at different times. For me, inspiration embodies itself in many ways, both visual and non-visual. The word itself is hard to define, but I use it synonymously with words like motivation, creativity, and passion. Inspiration is in everything you can touch, see, smell, taste, and hear, it is only the way we interpret it that makes it feel more sparsely distributed. I find that inspiration is like the game “Hide and Go Seek,” because it hides really well when you are “playing,” or looking for it, yet it likes to jump up everywhere you are when you don’t have any plans.
Things that inspire me pop up randomly when I’m not expecting them. Sometimes you find inspiration in typical places, like museums, libraries, and other settings that are designed deliberately to inspire the public, but that doesn’t always work for me because I find that too much influence makes me feel influenced, and, therefore, unoriginal. I like to let inspiration come to me on its own time. My strategy is to think about a project with all of its guidelines for a couple of days until I feel like I will never come up with an idea. Then I force myself to make a decision on the “best” idea I’ve had so far. From there, I think about why I feel uninspired or unoriginal, and then it just comes. I realize that even though an idea seems like it has been done before, there are millions of approaches that haven’t even been dreamt yet. Then I get really excited and the project just evolves with every step I take towards completion. I allow my own skills and mistakes dictate where I need to take the idea until it becomes something that feels inspiring and original to me.

Working Environment-
The working environment can influence a project even more than the artist sometimes, so it is important to consider the space when dealing with a project. Most often, I work in a studio-based environment where I am mostly by myself and it is relatively quiet. Sometimes I like to have music or other people around me, but it depends on what I’m doing. If I am working to improve my technical skills, I try to be around other artists so that I can receive critique and feedback. I also like input when I feel uncertain that my ideas are coming through in the manner I intended. Sometimes, the case is that other people do not understand in the way I originally thought, but the new interpretation is good too. My reasons for working in a studio are purely about the medium and the appropriateness of the space, that is, I can be a bit messy and the size of the area is good enough that I can work comfortably.
I love to work outside of the studio when my project permits it. That is, when my medium can be cleaner or more portable. Working outside when I am either drawing with pencil or using my camera to photograph nature is very inspiring to me, if only because it is so beautiful. I also feel inspired when I feel the warmth of sunshine on my body or feel a cool breeze brush through my hair. Often times, I use these experiences to influence what I do in the studio. I am not really an installation type of artist, nor do I choose to use less traditional materials or methods to create my art. For example, I would not think to reorganize the grocery store, nor would I want to if the thought had occurred to me at all. I admire and appreciate these methods, but it is not my style, so I prefer to work in the studio.

Working Process-
My working process varies by project depending on what I am doing and whether there are guidelines I must follow. When I am working on a project that is part of an assignment that must be completed in a specific structure for a class, I follow the rules. If that means I start by visiting a place, drawing thumbnails, and doing research on artists or art pieces similar to my theme, and writing a paper discussing my concepts, then I am happy to do all of that. However, just like working outside of the studio, that is really not my style. I do believe that those things can be important, such as researching artists so that you can find inspiration in them and find your place as an artist. I also understand the concepts behind writing papers that talk about your work and doing hundreds of thumbnails helps develop your work to new and interesting levels, I am just not patient enough to partake in those procedures if they are not required.
I am usually so inspired and ready to start my work, that doing all of the pre-project work bores me to the point where I have lost the motivation I need to actually get started. If I am at a loss for an idea, sometimes these measures can help, but not when I am ready to just hit the ground running. Often, the only thing I do to get ready to start a project is take photographs that help me develop my composition, and then I shop for inspiring materials which can always influence the direction my project goes in. I always wish I had the patience to do more, but it always slows me down to take the extra steps. I would like to get into the habit of at least doing all of the steps at the end of my project for the education that comes with it, even if I don’t do it at the beginning, but I will have to work on that. I wonder if that would allow me to create the project I first envisioned, but then would bring me to creating an entirely new and improved follow-up project.

Motivation-
My motivation comes from lots of different things, but primarily it is either an external influence or internally driven. When I say external forces motivate me, I do not use that terminology negatively. I only mean that I feel strongly that my performance will affect others whom I do not want to let down. For example, I feel motivated to do the best I can in a group project so that another person’s grade does not suffer from my incompetence. I also feel motivated to exceed in school because I want my mother to be proud of the education she is paying for me to receive. I feel motivated to make teachers, who have taught me and inspired me, proud of the work I have done, because I want my efforts to reflect their teaching appropriately. I do not work politically, but if ever I did, I would feel motivated to succeed for the success of the movement or even I was supporting.
I also feel motivated internally for more selfish reasons. I want to succeed in school so that I can get good grades and eventually a good job that will both support me and bring joy to my life. I want to succeed so that others are impressed by me so that I can be proud of myself. I am motivated to complete projects just because I do not like to leave anything unfinished. I do not like the feeling of defeat, and not finishing something that I started, for any reason, makes me feel like I have lost a game that I play with myself constantly. I compete with myself stronger than I have ever competed with any other person.

Reading-
I read a lot, but not much about art, however, I find reading inspiring no matter when or how much I do. I often have to read books or articles for classes that would not be by my choosing under any normal circumstances, but I find it always helps to expand my horizons and enrich my mind. Although I much prefer fiction to factual, I find both fascinating. Required reading out of textbooks always bore me and put me to sleep, but when I am done and I can analyze the facts, I am happy to have the new knowledge. I would read every word ever written if I had the time and the brain capacity. Even if I complain about required reading, I always see the benefits in the end.
I do love reading for pleasure, however much required reading may bore me. I have recently come to enjoy historical fiction the most. I find it very inspiring to read about times, places, and people I have never known, but existed at some point in history. I feel I make friends with the characters or even become one of them as I read. I get engulfed in the emotions and I can almost see everything happening as vividly as if it were occurring in front of my very face. Reading is always inspiring to me, whether artistically or in some other aspect of my life.

Most Inspiring Person-
This is definitely the most difficult question on the list! I suppose if I have to pick one person in the world that inspires me, I would have to say my grandmother. She is an incredible person who has made her life into something meaningful to her. I admire the fact that she was a workingwoman in the 1950’s and 1960’s before it became a normal thing; she was even valedictorian of her graduating high school class. I think it is amazing that she was a scientist and a computer expert when computers took up a whole room. She has traveled to from her home on Cape Cod to France, Germany, China, India, Mexico, Quebec, Utah, and California, and all in the last ten years. She has been teaching herself to speak French for a couple years now, and she frequently takes classes like Poetry and Watercolor Painting classes because she believes you can never be to old to learn something new. She is a member of a book club in town, so she reads everything. She actively involves herself with the town politics: running campaigns and encouraging people to vote. She raised my mother to be the person who she is which is maybe the accomplishment I am most thankful for.
My grandmother has done some amazing things in her life, but what is truly inspiring is that she doesn’t give up on anything, and she is always there for me. She encourages me to be who I am. She proves to me, by example, that you can make yourself into the person you want to be, all you have to do is keep going. She does everything in her power to help me when she can. I know that I can count on her, and my own mother, when I need help, be it emotional, physical, inspirational, or otherwise. With all of her accomplishments and caring towards me, my grandmother could not be anything other than inspirational.

Gabriel Orozco

First Blog! Ideas?

So this is my first blog for my first portfolio class, so I am going to talk about some ideas that I have. Because I don't know what any of the topics are yet, my ideas don't feel like they have even been born yet, but I suppose there are some passions I have that could work with almost anything.

Last year I worked with a lot of charcoal, so this year I plan to delve into pastels so I can use lots of color. I also explored self-portraits in a new, not so literal way. I tried to express emotion and feeling, but I did it by drawing my feet. I would maybe continue with this motif, but explore different mediums and perhaps a new theme, instead of doing more feet. I do enjoy feet though, so I think I could go either way on that one.

I am a double major this year in Art Education and Ceramics, so maybe some of the pieces I do would be 3D. Since I do have other classes where I work with clay, I think I would prefer to develop my skills in 2D materials, but I could link it into at least one of my projects, even if it is just a small part of it.

I would like to know what the topics for the projects are before I marry myself to one idea, because I often find inspiration in the title or theme of assignments.